Advocacy

Our Areas of Focus

Water & Sanitation

The global goal to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water (part of Millennium Development Goal 7) has been met five years ahead of schedule.1 Certainly cause to celebrate, but we still have a long way to go. 780 million people—11% of the world's population—are without access to safe drinking water,2 and regional disparities are stark—more than 40% of all people globally who lack access to drinking water live in sub-Saharan Africa.3 And, the second part of this target—to halve the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation—remains off track. Currently, 2.5 billion people are without improved sanitation4 (access to latrines and hygienic waste disposal)… Read more.

We turn on the tap in the privacy of our own home and have clean water instantly. Many women and children in poor rural communities spend 3-4 hours per day fetching small amounts of contaminated water for their families. In many schools, children take alternate mornings off classes to collect water for both school and home, thus missing valuable learning time. Family members, especially children, are regularly ill from water-borne diseases (e.g. parasitic worms, diarrhoea, skin and eye diseases). Much productive time is wasted carrying water—an activity that itself often results in physical injury (e.g. back injuries, hernia, miscarriages). In order for this situation to improve, people must have access to safe water from points closer to their homes and have opportunities to learn about hygiene practices, including safe excreta disposal and hand washing.

TEAR partners work with people living in poverty to improve their access to water and sanitation, and the practice of good hygiene, in a number of ways:

Drilling boreholes and sinking wells

Constructing gravity-fed systems to pipe water from mountain streams

Harvesting rain water off roofs and storing it in tanks

Access to training and materials to enable communities to build latrines

Providing access to household water filters or setting up businesses to produce them locally

Hygiene and sanitation education and promotion

Training in water scheme maintenance and support for Water Users' Committees and staff of relevant government departments

WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2012 Update, New York 2012.

Related Projects:

Jop Yoeung is proud of her new toilet, which she built with her family after receiving training and support from TEAR’s partner the Cambodian Hope Organisation (CHO).

Household toilets, like the one built by Yoeung’s family, have brought about a significant change in the quality of life for the people of her village, on the Cambodia-Thai border. Not only do they help prevent the spread of disease, they also provide privacy and security – something the women in Yoeung’s family greatly appreciate.

Before her family built the toilet, Yoeung and the other women of her family would need to walk…

A 'tippy tap' outside the family toilet is dramatically reducing the incidence of diarrhoea in areas where clean water is scarce. This simple set-up enables families to wash their hands - an effective way of decreasing the spread of disease.

TEAR's Christian partner Oasis Mozambique has been teaching women involved in their Self-Help Groups how to make their own 'tippy taps' from cut-down jerry cans. They have also been sharing important hygiene messages which the women can pass on to their own communities and keep themselves and their children in good health.

“Ascend to the realm of the gods, Angkor Wat. Descend into hell at Tuol Sleng Prison. With a history both inspiring and depressing, Cambodia delivers an intoxicating present.”

So reads the introduction to the Lonely Planet guide to Cambodia. It’s possibly an accurate description of the hyperreal experience of international tourism, but do Cambodians themselves experience an intoxicating present? Just how far has Cambodia come in reconciling its brutal post-colonial history to forge a new future?

I recently visited TEAR’s partners in Cambodia, as they work to build a better tomorrow for the…

Mozambique is one of the world’s poorest countries. 44% of children under the age of five are malnourished and there are high levels of maternal and child mortality. Only 43% of the population have access to safe water and just over 11% of the adult population is HIV positive. And yet despite these statistics, people have hope. Hope for their children, hope for their families, hope for a day when things will be different. TEAR partners with Oasis and World Relief in Mozambique. Watch this video, hear their “Hopes for Tomorrow”, and stand with them in prayer and solidarity today.

It’s not enough to just live; everyone deserves to have the opportunity to live to their full potential.

Keo Chan, her husband and three children were only just getting by.

With little money, they moved in with Keo’s family and shared a small house with two other families. There was not enough rice to go around, and Keo and her husband had to travel to another village to work to feed their family. There was no extra income for daily expenses, like school fees or medicine. If emergencies came up, there was no safety net.

Basic water and sanitation facilities can help transform communities, improving health and reducing disease. In the area of Nkayi in Zimbabwe, TEAR partner HEFO (Health, Education and Food Organisation) is working to improve access to clean, safe water for local communities. This has involved digging boreholes like this one and rehabilitating water points, so that people no longer have to travel long distances to collect water.

The borehole pictured is next to a conservation farming site. The main aim of the borehole is to help the women to be able to water their maize plot and vegetable…

Poor quality water can lead to health issues and illness that prevents people from living a full life, participating in activities education and earning a living.

Having safe water makes a huge difference to communities living in poverty overseas, enabling them to lead happier and healthier lives.

Simple changes improve health in Afghanistan

The Afghanistan we hear about in the news is one of conflict and insecurity, but for the people living there, there is more to the story. Most are struggling with basic issues like finding clean water to drink or having access to adequate…

TEAR Australia acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and we pay deep respect to Elders of this land, both past and present. We also acknowledge the unique and significant role God has bestowed upon our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first peoples in Australia. Together, we celebrate the culture, creativity, resilience, stewardship and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over time - and today.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers should be aware that this website may contain images or names of people who have passed away.